Log-domain interior-point methods for convex quadratic programming

Applying an interior-point method to the central-path conditions is a widely used approach for solving quadratic programs. Reformulating these conditions in the log-domain is a natural variation on this approach that to our knowledge is previously unstudied. In this paper, we analyze log-domain interior-point methods and prove their polynomial-time convergence. We also prove that they … Read more

Adaptive Sampling Quasi-Newton Methods for Zeroth-Order Stochastic Optimization

We consider unconstrained stochastic optimization problems with no available gradient information. Such problems arise in settings from derivative-free simulation optimization to reinforcement learning. We propose an adaptive sampling quasi-Newton method where we estimate the gradients of a stochastic function using finite differences within a common random number framework. We develop modified versions of a norm … Read more

Scalable Parallel Nonlinear Optimization with PyNumero and Parapint

We describe PyNumero, an open-source, object-oriented programming framework in Python that supports rapid development of performant parallel algorithms for structured nonlinear programming problems (NLP’s) using the Message Passing Interface (MPI). PyNumero provides three fundamental building blocks for developing NLP algorithms: a fast interface for calculating first and second derivatives with the AMPL Solver Library (ASL), … Read more

A Local MM Subspace Method for Solving Constrained Variational Problems in Image Recovery

This article introduces a new Penalized Majorization-Minimization Subspace algorithm (P-MMS) for solving smooth, constrained optimization problems. In short, our approach consists of embedding a subspace algorithm in an inexact exterior penalty procedure. The subspace strategy, combined with a Majoration-Minimization step-size search, takes great advantage of the smoothness of the penalized cost function, while the penalty … Read more

EETTlib – Energy-Efficient Train Timetabling Library

We introduce EETTlib, an instance library for the Energy-Efficient Train Timetabling problem. The task in this problem is to adjust a given timetable draft such that several key indicators relating to the energy consumption of the resulting railway traffic are minimized. These include peak power consumption, total energy consumption, loss in recuperation energy, fluctuation in … Read more

The multiphase course timetabling problem

This paper introduces the multiphase course timetabling problem and presents mathematical formulations and effective solution algorithms to solve it in a real case study. Consider a pool of lessons and a number of students who are required to take a subset of these lessons to graduate. Each lesson consists of a predetermined and consecutive sequence … Read more

A simple Introduction to higher order liftings for binary problems

A short, simple, and self-contained proof is presented showing that $n$-th lifting for the max-cut-polytope is exact. The proof re-derives the known observations that the max-cut-polytope is the projection of a higher-dimensional regular simplex and that this simplex coincides with the $n$-th semidefinite lifting. An extension to reduce the dimension of higher order liftings and … Read more

A quasi-Newton method with Wolfe line searches for multiobjective optimization

We propose a BFGS method with Wolfe line searches for unconstrained multiobjective optimization problems. The algorithm is well defined even for general nonconvex problems. Global convergence and R-linear convergence to a Pareto optimal point are established for strongly convex problems. In the local convergence analysis, if the objective functions are locally strongly convex with Lipschitz … Read more

An extended delayed weighted gradient algorithm for solving strongly convex optimization problems

The recently developed delayed weighted gradient method (DWGM) is competitive with the well-known conjugate gradient (CG) method for the minimization of strictly convex quadratic functions. As well as the CG method, DWGM has some key optimality and orthogonality properties that justify its practical performance. The main difference with the CG method is that, instead of … Read more

Multi-Mode Capacitated Lot Sizing Problem with Periodic Carbon Emission Constraints

this paper, we study the single item capacitated multi-mode lot sizing problem with periodic carbon emission constraints where the carbon emission constraints define an upper bound for the average emission per product produced in any period. The uncapacitated version of this problem was introduced in Absi et al. (2013) and solved in polynomial time. We … Read more